HP service automation tools make nice with Chef, OpenStack

Joab Jackson |
May 22, 2014

Hewlett-Packard has integrated its service automation programs with IT configuration and management programs Chef and OpenStack, a move that could make it easier for IT staff to work with these open source applications, often used by individual lines of business.

This also allows existing Chef scripts to be embedded in larger data center workflows.

Creating a service involves multiple steps of installation and configuration. The virtual machine must be set up, and then it needs to be populated with all the applications needed to run a service, such as the database, the application service, the core logic. Once everything is installed, the VM can then be placed in a service catalogue where it can be downloaded and shared by different business units.

The orchestration tools will also help organizations hook into the HP Cloud. In April, HP announced that it would be consolidating services under the Helion brand name, using its own OpenStack distribution, called HP Helion, as the base.

One early use of the HP tools has been at Air France, which found that automating its installation processes cut the cost of provisioning infrastructure by up to 85 percent.

The company has no disclosed pricing for any of the products. HP has also released a free community edition of Operations Orchestration that can run up to 100 workflows.